Tag Archives: asparagus

Bar Pitti in The Village

It’s one of those restaurants — cash only and no reservations.

I had expected a brutal wait for a table at Bar Pitti on a Friday night during a very busy time of night when most New Yorkers are just starting to get hungry. But to my surprise my boyfriend and I only waited 20 minutes for our table! It was luckily the last beautiful evening before the weather went back to being chilly — so the restaurant had indoor and outdoor seating available. We luckily got the best of both worlds and sat technically inside but right in front where the walls/windows were opened.

While waiting for a table, those waiting will stand outside on the sidewalk (which isn’t a big deal if the weather is nice, but if it was the middle of winter I can only imagine how upset I would be being both cold and hungry).

So we got a fabulous table and quickly began to eye down the menu to pick out what we wanted to order. The wait staff is fairly pushy and it’s obvious that they are running around trying to serve a jam-packed restaurant but they are rather sort and quick to the point. But who can be mad at a waiter who is very kind yet talks insanely fast?

First up was our appetizers and of course I had to order the caprese salad with fresh bufala mozzarella which came out beautifully seasoned with some salt and pepper and was exceptionally creamy and fluffy. I love a good bufala mozzarella but my boyfriend and I agreed that we loved Da Silvano’s unbelievable burrata. (Da Silvano is Bar Pitti’s sister restaurant and they are located right next to each other.) Although we did dig into our caprese and garlic bread was even served to the table (I’m not sure if it was part of the order or complimentary) but it was a perfect way to scoop up some bufala mozzarella and tomatoes. Besides being convenient it also added so much flavor to the cheese! Who would ever say “no” to garlic?

My boyfriend didn’t think that the caprese salad was enough to order so he wanted to snag one another item off of the specials menu (Note: the restaurant changes their specials menu daily based off of what is fresh). He picked the asparagus and veal dish. Hmmm, okay, this was a rather strange plate. The food didn’t taste bad in any way whatsoever but it was so damn odd. First of all, it’s a cold plate. Second, the asparagus is pureed. And third, you can’t see the veal, but the veal was literally just a thin layer of meat that was sliced and put on the plate before the asparagus puree was poured on top. Again, it didn’t taste bad, but the dish was just very unusual.

Next came our main courses. We both ordered off of the specials menu — I picked the spinach ravioli in a sage and butter sauce. This was such a phenomenal pick because after filling up on appetizers I desperately needed a light entree. I am such a sage lover. And I couldn’t help but laugh with my boyfriend over the fact that we were literally eating the same exact dinner that I had made him for the first meal I cooked for him. Aww, so sweet! (I made him a fresh caprese salad with a spinach ravioli in a butter and sage sauce — super easy to make at home!) But the chef at Bar Pitti did a great job infusing the fantastic flavor of sage into the butter. And I loved that there was plenty of butter sauce to scoop up from the plate onto the ravioli!

food at bar pitti

My boyfriend ordered a farfalle with salmon and asparagus in a pink sauce. I am not a fan of salmon when it’s cooked — I love love love it raw but forget cooking it and feeding it to me. Ick! But I surprisingly enjoyed this farfalle dish! Full of flavor and not an overwhelming taste of salmon, I really enjoyed all of the different tastes that were cooked into this dish. I was disappointed about one thing though — the farfalle aka bowtie pasta was wayyy over cooked. I’m such a typical Al Dente type of girl that loves her pasta just cooked enough that there is a slight firmness to the pasta. The texture of this pasta reminded me of the way my macaroni turned out the first time when I cooked it in the microwave back in college. Luckily the taste of the pasta was no where near Easy Mac!

Last but not least was our dessert. I have been on such a sorbet kick lately so I couldn’t help but order a serving of tangerine sorbet. (I think of my new obsession of sorbet is just a way for me to do research. My friend Brittany and her friend Gina recently gave me a KitchenAid ice cream maker as a thank you for letting them stay in my apartment for a long weekend. How nice is that! So now I have been learning all about what flavors taste great in ice cream and sorbet!) The tangerine sorbet was loaded with flavor and reminded me of my gelato experiences I had on my recent trip to Italy. The presentation was also fantastic — the sorbet was stuffed back into a tangerine! (My boyfriend and I were actually debating this… I thought that the tangerine looked like an orange, he thinks it looks like a tangerine. Please, someone agree with me on this that a tangerine looks exactly like an orange! )

And then my boyfriend ordered the tiramisu which tasted fantastic! I laughed at him though because this tiramisu tastes exactly like coffee/espresso and my boyfriend hates coffee (so I find it odd that he enjoyed this dessert!) Perfectly rich, and creamy this tiramisu really hits the spot for someone looking for both a sweet and savory dessert.

So besides having over cooked farfalle I am going to rate this restaurant a 9 out of 10. It really was a great experience and I was even able to speak the few words of Italian that I know. (I could easily order double of anything and I have fantastic manners saying please and thank you, and I know how to say “how do you say this in Italian?” So obviously I learned several new words as well.)

By the way, I do have to share with everyone something funny that happened at our dinner table. My boyfriend huffs and puffs whenever the food arrives because he can’t dig in right away. I always have to take a photo of our food first (of course, so I can share the pictures with all of my blog followers). But lately I’ve been noticing while I put my camera/phone away I manage to glance at my boyfriend who is snapping a few pictures himself…. Hmmmm, I think we might have a new food photographer!

Crispo, Meatpacking Restaurant

This past weekend, my boyfriend and I decided to go out to dinner at a restaurant that was recommended to us by a coworker of mine. I am always up for Italian food! I could eat Italian cuisine every day for the rest of my life and be satisfied — I’m one of those people. Even though I enjoy sushi, thai food, Mexican, and French cuisine… I never really crave the foods! But Italian food, I think about it all the time.

Crispo is located right on 14th Street near 8th Ave. It’s so close to Union Square, but I’m going to guess that it’s technically in the Meatpacking neighborhood. If you’re looking for a restaurant close to the hot spots, fun night clubs, and rowdy bars that can be found in Meatpacking, this restaurant is just a 5 minute walk from all of those shenanigans.

The restaurant is loud but intimate. The lighting is magical and you’ll feel cozy at whatever table you are seated at. The low ceilings probably help a lot with the cozy and intimate setting.

The menu is gigantic and a bit over whelming and I was surprised that there’s an entirely different menu for the “specials of the day.” Can you believe it? Of the dayyyy!

Off of the main menu, we started with Parmigiano Crusted Roast Asparagus — this plate contained 4 massive pieces of asparagus spears cooked perfectly (not too over cooked and mushy and it had the perfect crunch to it) and half of the spears were covered with my favorite type of cheese — parmigiano reggiano cheese. The cheese was nice and crispy on top but there was a large amount of it on the vegetables so the cheese was warm and melted underneath the crispy layer.

Another appetizer we ordered off the of the main menu was the Caramelized Brussel Sprouts, Toasted Almonds, and Maple. If you are limiting yourself to only one appetizer, this is the one to get. It was my favorite (and my boyfriend’s favorite too). The brussel sprouts are cooked perfectly and the maple glaze on top adds so much sweetness to the vegetable you will forget what you are eating. Personally, I love brussel sprouts — they can be steamed in a Ziploc steam bag and I’d eat them just like that. But the maple adds loads of comforting flavor to it — I think I’m going to try to recreate these in my own kitchen!

Our final appetizer we ordered was off of the daily special menu — it was a zucchini popper dish that came with cheese stuffed on the inside of the popper and a spicy red sauce. This was our least favorite, the bread on the outside of the zucchini poppers was rather soft and kind of soggy. There was also so much cheese on the inside, I may have been lucky to have one full bite that included a piece of zucchini. The flavors weren’t bad, but the texture was lacking.

For our main dishes I knew exactly what I wanted I didn’t hesitate when ordering — the Butternut Tortelloni with Roast Italian Chestnuts, Sage and Parmigiano.

Anything with butternut I know I am going to love. Perfectly cooked and nice and sweet, exactly what butternut dishes tend to be like, I indulged in every bite. Not a single piece of food was left on my plate. The sage also brought out fantastic flavors in the dish! I recommending this plate as an order if you venture to Crispo.

My boyfriend ordered a pasta dish and he ranked it as just ok. There could have been some more flavors added into the plate. But for all your ordinary pasta lovers that don’t need much to say “wow” I’m sure you would have been happy with the order. (I believe his pasta dish came off of the daily special menu so I can’t tell you exactly what was in it.)

Finally, for dessert… We ordered the tasting of creme brulee and chocolate pot de creme. The creme brulee is definitely one of my favorite desserts and the chef at Crispo did a fantastic job with this! The brown sugar was perfectly torched on the top and all of the flavors were beautiful. The pot de creme was also very tasty and satisfied my chocolate sweet tooth!

Over all I really enjoyed this restaurant — thank you coworker for your recommendation! The restaurant isn’t too far from my apartment and I plan to go back. Hopefully I can bring my friend Stef… I can see her falling in love with the appetizers just like I did!

A Birthday Dinner in NYC

This week was my good friend’s (Kelly) birthday. Kelly and I were introduced through one of my best friends over a year ago right before Kelly officially moved to NYC. My friend Ken introduced us — Ken and I met when I was still in undergrad at Penn State. We met the summer we lived in NYU housing while we worked our summer internships (this specific summer was when I was an editorial intern at Food Network Magazine). It was the night before I started my internship and I was trying to put together my first day of work outfit and I realized there was no floor length mirror in the room! I then went knocking on doors asking if anyone had a mirror — when I got to Ken’s room I was shocked when he said he had a floor length mirror I could borrow! And that’s when our friendship began. It’s funny, you never know how you are going to meet someone in the great city of New York!

Ken and I the summer we met.

Well, Monday was Kelly’s first birthday in the city and of course that means we needed to celebrate! Kelly wanted to do dinner and an off-broadway show with his closest friends. Unfortunately, I could only do one or the other and I picked dinner because I’m an old lady and can’t be out too late on a work night (plus, shows some times can get rather pricey).

Kelly/The Birthday Boy at dinner.

This week also happens to be winter Restaurant Week! So, Kelly picked a restaurant (Thalia) with a Restaurant Week menu (you pick an appetizer, main course, and dessert for a flat rate of $35). I was originally going to order off of that menu, then I took a look at the regular menu and discovered a dish that called my name — Mushroom Duxelle Ravioli with asparagus, grana padano cheese, in a porcini truffle sauce.

Ravioli in a porcini sauce w/ truffle and asparagus.

I have to admit, I often stick my nose up to restaurants in Midtown Manhattan but every once in a while I am delighted when I experience a delicious dish in the heart of that neighborhood. And that’s exactly what happened at Kelly’s birthday dinner — boy oh boy did I order an unbelievable dish! The porcini truffle sauce was delectable! The creamy sauce wasn’t too heavy and the shaved truffle on top made the dish even better. You know that truffle is on someone’s plate when you can smell it the moment the dish is set in front of you. My friend Ken was sitting to my right (and the birthday boy to the left) and Ken immediately asked me if truffle was an ingredient in the ravioli dish I ordered. I also love asparagus, and the small slices of my favorite vegetable added a nice crisp texture that actually complimented the cheesy ravioli!

restaurant week NYC

Kelly's main course of tuna.

The birthday boy ordered for his main course a tuna dish. Even though I didn’t taste the tuna myself (I know, what a shocker, there was tuna on the table and I didn’t even eat a bite!) I had to show you all a photo of this gorgeous plate! Check out all the fantastic colors! It not only looks fantastic, but Kelly said it tasted great!

Again, it’s such a shock to me when I eat at a great midtown restaurant. But it’s great to know of a delicious spot to take friends to when they are in town for a Broadway show. The location is perfect for those who want to walk from their restaurant to the theatre. And not only was the food delicious, but the service was immaculate! They understand completely when a theatre-goer tells them they need dessert and the check asap because they have a show to run off to.

The Highliner in Chelsea

It’s taken me so long to put up posts! So sorry everyone! The holidays have been crazy and time wasn’t exactly on my side when it came to blogging.

So… here’s a new post!

I love it when my mom and dad come to visit me in New York City — it means so much to me to have them here and to show them around the neighborhood I live in. My mom recently came to visit me (sadly, my dad couldn’t join) and we lucked out with 50 degrees and sunny for our Saturday weather! Such a gorgeous weekend to be in NYC!

We had lunch in Madison Square Park, at Shake Shack of course! And we spent the entire day walking around the city. Since I live in Manhattan, my weekends don’t include walking around all day and getting stuck in the touristy sections of the city. I’m on a schedule, I have errands to run, I have to go grocery shopping, and cleaning my apartment is always on the list of things to get done on the weekend. So it was a treat to be outside on a sunny Saturday gallivanting around town with my mother.

For the first year while living in Chelsea, the old Empire Diner had been boarded up. It was such a miserable looking spot to walk by… it looked as if the famous diner was abandoned and the never-will-be-forgotten landmark would be lost forever. Then, this past summer it was reopened, not as the Empire Diner (so sad), but as The Highliner. On the outside of the restaurant the original letters that spell “Diner” were kept, but the word “Empire” was taken down. The outside has stayed the same — a vintage diner look building, with silver lining that frames the building. The inside however has changed. The old school looking furniture — diners’ chairs, round spinning stools at the breakfast bar, and classic vintage diner tables crowd the petite restaurant. But with a modern update, everything is brand new.

The Highliner brunch

My mother and I shuffled in rather early on a Sunday to sneak in some breakfast/brunch before she headed home. Luckily, we made it before the brunch rush (we got there at 9:30 a.m.) and we had no problem getting a table… actually there were so many open tables we could pick our seating location ourselves! I still can’t believe I was awake at 9:30, let alone groomed and at a restaurant!

We both ordered the same thing, and why wouldn’t we!? The Egg-In-A-Hole, which described on the menu is “asparagus. mushrooms. goat cheese fondue.” And for only $9, how could you go wrong?

The egg-in-a-hole came quickly. The bread was clearly sliced fresh, it was nice and thick and fluffy and housed a perfectly cooked egg right on the inside. It was fully cooked, no runny anything! And it was placed on top of the goat cheese fondue. I would cut into the egg and bread and scoop up some of the creamy cheesy fondue and spoon on top some of the chopped asparagus and mushrooms. All of the flavors together made for one heck of a rich bite. If it wasn’t for the goat cheese fondue, the dish would be just a simple bland unoriginal plate of flavors I could have made at home. Everything was perfectly cooked — the veggies al dente and the bread perfectly seasoned with a nice crisp crunch on the outside.

The Highliner also brews one heck of a tasty cup of coffee too! And I promise you their lattes will wake you right up!

Honestly, it’s tempting not to go every morning!

P.S. I will admit I’ve had their burger, I had it when they first opened this past summer and I was not a fan. The meat wasn’t highend like it should have been. I didn’t want to give up on the diner and I have discovered their breakfast/brunch menu is the best. Maybe one day I’ll give their dinner menu another chance.

Labeling Junk Food!?

I eat an orange every day at work!

After stuffing my face over a five day period at Thanksgiving time, I returned home and made what I think is a fantastic alteration in my diet. My day begins with some sort of protein and something whole grain. I have to have a full stomach when I get to work other wise my brain just doesn’t function.

When it comes to lunch in New York City it can get a little annoying. I work in Midtown Manhattan and everything is over priced and kind of unhealthy (Midtown Manhattan is also the 5th Avenue shopping area and Times Square… so yes, if you are a tourist and decide to never leave this area, you will be ripped off and honestly you probably won’t experience good food). If I want to get a healthy salad that hardly fills me up I will be paying at least $13! How outrageous! So, I have discovered if I eat a filling breakfast, I will find myself getting a little hungry around 2 p.m. or so.

I always carry in my bag a 100 calorie bag of popcorn. When I am ready for a snack I just pop it in the microwave in the little kitchen in my office. (Yes, I’m the d-bag that makes a good portion of the office smell like tasty popcorn. Sorry!) But I am also eating one banana and one orange every afternoon. Honestly, I hate bananas, I used to gag over them. But as an adult I do realize how healthy bananas are so I have learned to eat them.

And from 8 a.m. until 4 p.m. I am drinking nothing but Green Tea. I keep googling “benefits to green tea” and I am always shocked (and excited) over the facts and stats of what I find.

When I get home I have been eating a fairly healthy dinner. It’s always loaded with green vegetables. I’m obsessed with spinach, I love artichokes, asparagus, squash, and cauliflower. I often go to the grocery store twice a week so I can pick up fresh vegetables and fruit — it also helps me never waste… I find if I buy in bulk, food will end up spoiling before I get to it and it goes to waste. Of course I splurge on whatever I eat for dinner on the weekends — but obviously I eat the proper portion sizes.

Before Thanksgiving I was drinking maybe 2 Coca Colas a day. I love Coke, it’s so refreshing and tasty. In college, if I had a hangover, I would drink one Coke and feel immediate relief… no joke! But I cute soda out of my life and I miss the fizzy carbonation. I now drink only mandarin orange seltzer water to get my fizzy fix. There are no artificial anything in it and there isn’t a single calorie! I love it!

When I read an article on Packaging Digest, I was pretty shocked at what the text said. “Health experts are calling for junk food and fizzy drinks to have ‘exercise labels’ on their packaging to inform people how much physical exercise would need to be taken to burn off the sky-high calorie and fat content.”

This made me think: if this label was on my Coke can, I probably would have stopped drinking soda a long time ago. Have you ever seen that commercial about how if you drink one soda a day for a year, you are technically consuming 50 pounds of sugar! WOAH! That’s a lot of freakin sugar!

What is everyone thinking about this article and what it says? Do you think that it will help children (and adults) break away from their junk food habits? And do you think that this labeling rule will eventually be a requirement for all junk food companies?

A Modern Family Dinner

pasta dinnerMy friend Ken and I love the ABC show ‘Modern Family.’ We decided to make dinner before the show came on this week. Ultimately, we were disappointed because we were planning for a new episode, and sadly it was a rerun. But did everyone catch the Thanksgiving episode? I just started to watch ‘Modern Family‘ this season. I started out by having Netflix send me the first season because I love to watch the pilots of a series. I was able to jump right into the show! That’s the best part of show, you don’t have to have watched it from the beginning!

Here’s what Ken and I cooked up for dinner: we roasted asparagus and tomatoes in the oven at 350 degrees. We brushed on top a little big of olive oil and sprinkled on some salt and pepper. Then we cooked up some pasta. Once it was cooked we added just a tad bit of olive oil to coat the pasta in, then we added freshly chopped rosemary, some salt, and some pepper. After mixing everything together I scooped out enough pasta on each plate and then grated some fresh parmigiano reggiano cheese on top. This dinner turn out so light, flavorful and fresh! Our tummies were happy, but overall we were still disappointed that this week there was no new ‘Modern Family’ episode.

I think we should have this dinner and a tv show become a weekly tradition. What do you think? What are your favorite shows to watch with friends or family?
(Photo Credit: absenceofalternatives.com)

Grapes & Asparagus in a Pasta With Cream Sauce

I have to admit, the inspiration behind making this dish has to do with one of my favorite restaurants — Paprika. During my first summer in New York City I used to walk to Paprika once a week for dinner. It’s such an affordable restaurant and the food is not only so tasty but the portions are fantastic! Well, I used to order a fettuccini pasta in a cream sauce with shrimp, asparagus, and grapes. Such an odd combination, right? Grapes? What’s up with that? Let me tell you something about the grapes in a dish like this… I always feel like a rich, thick, cream sauce makes me feel thirsty — well, the grapes change all of that. The sweet burst of a juicy red grape is exactly what everyone needs after eating a pasta with alfredo sauce dish.

Since that summer, Paprika has changed their menu a few times and they unfortunately took my favorite dish off the menu. (You can only imagine my reaction towards the waitress when I found this out.) So I decided to recreate the dish myself.

One major difference is I decided to leave out the shrimp. I hardly ate the shrimp anyways on the Paprika dish, I more so liked the flavor the shrimp gave the pasta, but it was pretty much a cocktail shrimp and I hate the texture of that type of shrimp.

First things first, you need a cream sauce. I originally took a Food Network alfredo sauce recipe and I eventually altered the recipe to the way I preferred to make it. But start with this recipe and go from there:

    1 pint heavy cream
    1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
    1 cup freshly grated Parmigiano-Reggiano
    Freshly cracked black pepper
    To prepare alfredo sauce: Heat heavy cream over low-medium heat in a deep saute pan. Add butter and whisk gently to melt. Sprinkle in cheese and stir to incorporate. Season with freshly cracked black pepper. In a large stockpot, cook pasta in plenty of boiling salted water for 3 minutes. Quickly drain the pasta and add it to the saute pan, gently toss the noodles to coat in the alfredo. Transfer pasta to a warm serving bowl. Serve immediately.

While I make the sauce, I boil my water to make the pasta. I prefer angel hair pasta but fettuccini works as well. Once the pasta is cooked I drain it. I slice up some asparagus and either steam cook them in a Ziploc steam bag or I quickly cook them in a small pan. Then I add the asparagus to the cooked sauce and I add red grapes. Once I stir the items together I add the pasta and toss the pasta in the sauce, asparagus, and grapes. I serve immediately.

Over all it’s a very quick meal to prepare. Here is a list of the following things you need to serve one person:

    3 Large Asparagus
    8-10 Purple Grapes
    Angel Hair Pasta (or Fettuccini)
    Whipping Cream
    Butter
    Parmigiano Reggiano cheese
    Black Pepper

In total, I probably spent about 20 minutes making dinner. But it only took me about 5 minutes to inhale.

The grapes are an interesting addition to a pasta dish, but give it a shot and tell me what you think. I promise you, you won’t be disappointed!